Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this disclosure and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Closed-captioning is a video-related service that was developed for the hearing-impaired. When closed-captioning is enabled, a media program and closed-captioning text (CC text) representing an audio portion of the media program are displayed as the media program is played. The CC text may represent, for example, spoken dialog or sound effects of the media program, thereby helping a viewer to comprehend what is being presented in the media program. Closed-captioning may also be disabled such that the media program may be displayed without the CC text.
CC text may be generated in a variety of manners. For example, a computer-based automatic speech-recognition system may convert spoken dialog into text. Another technique may involve an individual listening to an audio portion of a media program and manually typing out corresponding text. This individual is sometimes referred to as a “captioner.”
After the CC text is generated, it may be encoded and stored in the form of closed-captioning data (CC data). CC data may then be embedded in or otherwise associated with the corresponding media program. In some cases, a broadcasting system may add the CC data to a video portion of a media program, for example in line 21 of an analog format broadcast according to the National Televisions Systems Committee (NTSC) standard, and may then broadcast the updated media program to an audience.